AIMS AND OBJECTIVES - MEANING AND DISTRIBUTION ; OBJECTIVE BASED INSTRUCTION, COMPETENCY BASED INSTRUCTION
ASSIGNMENT
· AIMS AND OBJECTIVES - MEANING AND DISTRIBUTION
· OBJECTIVE BASED INSTRUCTION, COMPETENCY BASED INSTRUCTION
INTRODUCTION
In education, learning objectives are brief statements that describe what students will be expected to learn by the end of school year, course, unit etc. In many cases, learning objectives are the interim academic goals that teachers establish for students who are working toward meeting more comprehensive learning standards. Learning objectives or educational objectives are a way for teachers to structure, sequence and plan out learning goals for specific instructional period, typically for the purpose of moving students toward the achievement of larger, long-term educational goals such as meeting course learning expectations, performing well on standardized test and excelling in every fields of his/her interests.
AIM
The term “Aim” and “objectives” are often used as synonyms. Both the terms indicate the destination towards which the learner is guided in the course of instruction. When one speaks of a destination, it may be distant or near; it may be one that could immediately be realized in a specific period of time or one which cannot be fully realized at all, even in the course of a life time.
“Aim” is a broad concept. It cannot be easily attained. For example “self-realisation” is a destination towards which education tries to lead the learner, but this is neither immediate nor is it fully realisable, though one can aspire to go nearer to that. Such a goal is said to be an “Educational Aim”.
OBJECTIVE
An objective too is a goal towards which a learner is made to move. But it is immediate, specific, operationally defined and easily achievable in a limited time. Hence an objective may be said to be a part of an aim – a part that would ultimately reach the distant goal. There can be three different levels of objectives: 1) Educational Objectives 2) Instructional Objectives 3) Specific Objectives or Specifications.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
An Educational Objectives is a statement of expected results. It is a statement of what the students should be able to do at the end of learning, as compared to what they could not do before.
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
Learning is often defined as changes that occur in the learner as a result of development. The best strategy for formulating instructional objectives is to analyse the learning process in terms of changes occurring in learners. Instructional objectives are the behavioural changes that have occurred in a learner, as the result of learning a subject.
THE DOMAINS OF BEHAVIOUR
Human behaviour can be classified under three major categories: Cognitive domain, Affective domain and Psycho motor domain.
Gathering new items of information by interacting with the environment, giving meaning these experiences, applying them in new situations, using them for analysis, synthesis are said to be changes in the “Cognitive domain” of behaviour, for which the learner mainly makes use of his intellectual abilities.
Many of the behaviours of an individual are controlled more by feelings and emotions rather than by cognition which depends upon the intellect. Behavioural changes which go beyond the changes in the cognitive domain are said to be changes in the “Affective Domain.”
Cognitive and Affective behavioural changes act as the basis for the formation of skills, but more important is the co-ordination of the autonomous nervous system and the muscular and skeletal system. Speaking, reading, writing, drawing etc are examples of such skills, the perfection of which is the result of the integration of a number of cognitive and affective changes with motor activities. Hence changes of this category leading to mastery of skills are said to be changes in the “psycho-motor domain.”
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Specific objectives are the actual behavioural changes happening in learners. In other words, giving one’s own examples, comparing, classifying, defining etc may be said to be observable behaviours associated with the objective understanding. Such observable and measureable behaviours that could be cited as evidences for the realisation of an objective may be called ‘Specific objectives’ or ‘Specifications.’
OBJECTIVE BASED INSTRUCTION
Educational objectives imply the changes that occur in the student through the process of teaching. It has the following characteristics: (i) It provides the direction for the teaching activity, which is designed to achieve a pre determined goal. (ii) It helps in planning for the desired change. (iii) It provides the basis for organising activities.
A clear description of the intended outcome of instructional helps the teacher in selecting relevant materials and methods of instruction, in monitoring pupils learning progress and in selecting and practising appropriate evaluation procedures. The instruction which is aimed to attain the pre determined objectives is known as Objectives based instruction.
ADVANTAGES OF OBJECTIVE BASED INSTRUCTION
The following are the advantages of Objective Based Instruction:
1. It gives direction to the teachers and helps them to wise decisions.
2. It helps the curriculum planners to decide in advance the matters to be included in the curriculum and the scope to be envisaged regarding its transactions.
3. Objectives aid in evaluation which in turn helps in refining objectives
4. The effort of the teacher is made more specific and concrete.
5. It makes instruction output oriented and hence helps to maximize the output of learning, normally development of desirable changes.
COMPETENCY BASED INSTRUCTION
Competency based education also known as Performance based education, is relatively a new approach to teaching, has in its core the ideas of accountability and competencies. In Competency based education, competencies are spelt out , so that it is possible to asses student learning through observation of student behaviour.
The teacher is accountable for his students’ attainment of a minimum level of competency in performing the essential tasks of learning.
Instruction is presented in the form of modules, a module being a set of learning activities with objectives, prerequisites, pre-assessments, instructional activities, post-assessments and remediation. The teacher acts as a facilitator of learning and his job is more directed towards the preparation of the self-instructional modules. Evaluation is done by criterion-referenced testing.
COMMON FEATURES OF COMPETENCY BASED INSTRUCTION
a) Programme requirements are derived from and based on the practises adopted in effective programmes
It considers only those aspects which the learner should know, be able to do and accomplish.
b) Requirements are stated as competencies.
Requirements describe what the student must demonstrate for successful completion of the programme.
c) Instruction and assessment are specifically related to competencies.
Instruction not directly linked to competencies is eliminated from the programme. Assessment of a learner is based exclusively on programme competencies.
d) Learner progress is determined by demonstration of competencies.
Length of time in a programme is not the primary variable in learner’s progress; it is demonstration of competence in various areas and to the specific levels identified for a programme.
e) Implied and related characteristics
· Instruction is individualized and personal
· The learning experience of students is guided by feedback.
· The programme as a whole is systematic.
· The emphasis is on exit and not on entrance requirements.
· Instruction is modularised.
· Programme is field centred.
· The base for programme decision making is broad including college teachers, university faculty, students.
· Both teachers and students are designers of the instructional system.
· The programme includes research and is open and regenerative.
· Materials and experiences focus on concepts/ skills and knowledge which can be learned in a specific instructional setting.
CONCLUSION
Any educational process has an aim and objective. Though both are used synonymously they have different meanings. While aim is a broad concept and cannot be easily achieved; on the other hand objectives are narrow concept, which can be easily attained. Through this behavioural changes in the students can be brought about. Objective based instruction provides direction to achieve pre determined goals. While through Competency based education it is possible to assess student’s learning through observation of student’s behaviour. Teachers become responsible for his students attainment of minimum level of competency in performing the essential tasks of learning.
SEMINAR - MACAULAY'S MINUTES
MACAULAY’S MINUTES
INTRODUCTION
The period between 1835 and 1853 in India, a controversy was started about the relative importance of occidental and oriental literature and culture. The question was as to which one superior to the other. This was the period of expansion of the British Empire. They were getting success after success in various parts of the world, so it was quite natural that they considered their language, literature and culture superior to those of others.
Before 1813, the Company’s educational policy was influenced by Orientalism. The Company wanted to maintain the old educational system. There were many important English officers who were supporters of this policy. The members of the General Committee of Public Instruction who agreed to spend one lack of rupees were also in favour of Orientalism. Princep was the leader of the group of Orientalists. They emphasised education in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. In other words they regarded the Indian languages and culture superior to the culture and literature of Europe
The supporters of Occidental point of view were young Englishmen and in number they surpassed the Orientalist Englishmen. They looked down at Indian languages, literature and culture. They believed that knowledge could be imparted only through English and it was with Western knowledge that moral standards of Indians could be raised. Therefore, the major portion of the money sanctioned should be spent on the study of Western knowledge.
Lord Macaulay was one of the learned persons of England. On June 10, 1834 he became a member of the Governor- General’s Council and was appointed the President of the Committee of Public Instruction. He was a staunch supporter of the Occidentalism and had come to India with new educational ideas. Macaulay reached India when the Occidental- Oriental controversy was at its peak. For him the culture and civilisation of India appeared to be foreign and he thought to spend European culture and civilisation in India, in preference to the existing one in the country.
MACAULAY AND HIS MINUTES ON EDUCATION
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1858) was a great scholar and educationist of this period. He was a writer of great repute. He came to India in 1834 and was appointed as the President of Committee of Public Instruction by Governor General Lord William Bentick.
Macaulay wrote his famous minutes on February 2, 1835 in which he vehemently criticized everything Indian- astronomy, history, philosophy, religion and praised everything western. On this basis he advocated the national system of education for India which could serve the interest of the British Empire. His famous Minutes was accepted and Lord William Bentick issued proclamation in March 1835 which set at rest all controversies and led to the formation of policy which became the corner stone of al educational programmes during the British period in India.
The beginning of the state system of education in India under the British rule may be traced back to the year 1813 when the East India Company was compelled by the force of circumstances to accept responsibility for the education of Indians. The Charter did not specify the methods to secure the objects of revival and improvement of nature, the encouragement of learned natives of India and the introduction and the promotion of knowledge of sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.
MACAULAY’S MINUTES
Macaulay begins his Minutes by stating the Charter Act of 1813 which does not specify anything in particular about the languages or sciences which are to be studied. He says that there is no pledge given on support of Indian Language Education. He gave the Governor General the disposition of money for the purpose of learning in India, in a way which he thought most advisable. He hold the Lordship “to be quite as free to direct that it shall no longer be employed in encouraging Arabic and Sanskrit.” All parties agreed on the point that the dialects spoken by the natives of India contain neither literary nor scientific information. All admitted that the intellectual improvement of the natives who have the means of pursuing higher studies can be affected only by means of some language, not vernacular amongst them.
WHAT THEN SHALL THAT LANGUAGE BE?
One half of the Committee maintained that it should be English while the other half maintained that it should be Arabic and Sanskrit. Macaulay had no knowledge of Sanskrit or Arabic. Inorder to form a correct estimate of their values he read the translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit works. He conversed with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. He was ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of Occidentalists themselves. He never found any one among them who could deny that a shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. Thus the intrinsic superiority of the Western literature was fully admitted by those members of the Committee who supported the Oriental plan of education.
ENGLISH : THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH INDIAS HAVE TO BE EDUCATED
Macaulay stated that people of India cannot be educated by means of their mother tongue. He advocated English as the language in which the Indians had to be educated. The reasons that he furnished in support of English were that, English was pre-eminent language among the languages of the West. English is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seats of the East. Whether it be the intrinsic value of English literature or the particular situation of India, it could be seen as the strongest reason to think that of all the tongues the English tongue is the most suitable tongue to teach the natives of India.
INDIANS ACTUALLY DESIRE TO LEARN ENGLISH AND WESTERN SCIENCES
Macaulay is against the opinion that inorder to get the cooperation of the natives, they must be taught in Arabic and Sanskrit. He says that when a nation of high intellectual attainments undertakes to superintend the education of a comparatively ignorant nation, it is not necessary that learners have to prescribe the course which is to be taken by the teachers. He says that by doing so “we are withholding from them the learning they are craving, we are forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate. This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanskrit students, while those who yearn English are willing to pay us.”
EXPENDITURE ON SANSKRIT AND ARABIC IS A DEAD LOSS
For Macaulay the money spend on Sanskrit and Arabic colleges are not merely a dead loss to the cause of truth, but it is bounty-money paid to raise-up champions of error. He says that if there is any opposition from the natives to the changes he recommends, it is the effect their own system.
THE REAL DESIRE OF INDIANS
The native people left to themselves are not supporters of old system. As an example Macaulay points out that the Committee spend lack of rupees in printing Arabic and Sanskrit books. But those books found no purchasers. While the school book society sold out seven or eight thousand English volumes every year, not only pays the expenses of printing but realizes a profit of 20 percent on its outlay.
INDIANS CAN ATTAIN EXCELLENCE IN ENGLISH
The advocates of oriental learning granted that no natives of India can merely attain English. But Macaulay says that he “found in this very town, natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language. He says that just like an English youth who can read Herodotus and Sophocles, an Indian can read Hume and Milton.
TO SUM UP
Macaulay sums up by saying that he “think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813, that we are fettered by any pledge expressed or implied, that we ought to employ the funds in teaching what is best worth knowing, that English is best worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic, that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and to this end our efforts ought to be directed. We must form a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, opinions, morals and intellect.”
Macaulay said that he would strike at the root of the bad system which has been hitherto forced by them. He would stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books. He would abolish the Madrassa and Sanskrit college at Culcutta. If he retains the Sanskrit college at Delhi, no stipends will be given to the students. The funds thus placed at disposal would be used to give large encouragement to the Hindu College at Culcutta and establish in the principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra, schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught.
Macaulay concluded the Minutes by giving the Governor General the disposal of the Minutes. If he agreed by his Lordship, then he would be happy to continue, or if it is in the contrary, he would like to resign from his post President of Committee of Public Instruction. Lord Bentick passed the Minutes in March 1835.
ž Not fettered by the Charter Act of 1813.
ž Free to employ the funds as they chose.
ž Employ the natives in teaching what is best worth knowing.
ž English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic.
ž The natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught in Sanskrit or Arabic.
ž It is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars.
MERITS
ž A clear cut picture of the national system of education in India emerged
ž English schools began to be established.
ž English became the medium of instruction.
ž Western arts and sciences became popular.
DEMERITS
ž Indian culture and philosophy receded to the background.
ž Vernacular languages began to be neglected.
ž Mass education was neglected.
ž Western culture made rapid strives.
ž Arabic and Sanskrit languages found very few takers.
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